Content

13.1

The Director of Policy and Democratic Engagement
submitted a report setting out the Council’s approach to
delivering on the Council Plan priority of developing “A new
approach to community empowerment and engagement, working with our
Voluntary, Community and Faith sector partners and through Local
Area Committees”.
 
The report does this
through:
 
• setting out a strategic Statement of
Intent for this area of work;
 
• welcoming the leadership being shown by
the Governance Committee on the development of our vision and
longer-term plan for community
engagement
 
• proposing a set of “Foundations for
Good Engagement” to make clear the consistent, core standards
of practice we need to have in place ahead of the Governance
Committee’s work completing, and to ensure they are building
on solid ground.

 

 

13.2

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Strategy and
Resources Policy Committee:-

 

 

 

(a) approves the
Engagement Statement of Intent, as set out in the report now
submitted;
 
(b) approves the
proposed Foundations for Good Engagement, as set out in the report
and Appendix 3, as a living document, and delegate authority to the
Director of Policy and Democratic Engagement to update these as
necessary; and
 
(c) notes the
Governance Committee’s work to respond to the recommendations
of the Involve report, including the establishment of a Public
Involvement Working Group.

 

 

13.3

Reasons for Decision

 

 

13.3.1

This proposal is
recommended in order to demonstrate our commitment in a way that
enables the Council to be held accountable, and to ensure that the
foundations of our approach are in place on which more aspirational
work can build.

 

 

13.4

Alternatives Considered and
Rejected

 

 

13.4.1

One alternative option would be leaving arrangements as they
currently are: as set out in this paper this would be
unsatisfactory as it would leave the Council in the position of not
delivering key priorities in the Council
Plan.

 

 

13.4.2

A
second alternative option would have been to bring a fully worked
up engagement framework and approach for endorsement. This was not
pursued as it would not reflect our intention of being more open in
our approach to engagement: it is preferable that the Governance
Committee conduct their work to shape is as is
proposed.